In 2006 Tang and Ng published this much promulgated study about the use of internet search in making a diagnosis. They used case reports from the New England Journal of medicine, and identified the unique or prominent features to use as search terms, and found that an internet search on Google was able to correctly identify the diagnosis more than half the time (58%). I recall learning about this study as a medical student 10 years ago, and since then I have heard it quoted in academic meetings and other learning environments.
We sought to see how much the internet has changed in the past 10 years. We surmised that internet search techniques may have improved during this time, or perhaps the internet has become more overloaded with unhelpful forums and opinion based content. As best we could, we duplicated the original study by using the same search terms and strategy to develop a differential diagnosis for the same cases, while blinded to the final diagnosis. Of course, we disregarded any webpages that referred to this study or the original cases - all published online.
We found similar results to the original investigation 10 years ago. The correct diagnosis was identified from Google in 15 of 26 cases (58%). 20 of 26 internet searches returned the same results as the original study, 3 cases did better in 2016 and 3 cases did worse. So, we conclude that the utility of basic internet search engines for making a diagnosis has not changed substantially in the past decade.
Rapid Response:
Googling a Diagnosis 10 years Later
In 2006 Tang and Ng published this much promulgated study about the use of internet search in making a diagnosis. They used case reports from the New England Journal of medicine, and identified the unique or prominent features to use as search terms, and found that an internet search on Google was able to correctly identify the diagnosis more than half the time (58%). I recall learning about this study as a medical student 10 years ago, and since then I have heard it quoted in academic meetings and other learning environments.
We sought to see how much the internet has changed in the past 10 years. We surmised that internet search techniques may have improved during this time, or perhaps the internet has become more overloaded with unhelpful forums and opinion based content. As best we could, we duplicated the original study by using the same search terms and strategy to develop a differential diagnosis for the same cases, while blinded to the final diagnosis. Of course, we disregarded any webpages that referred to this study or the original cases - all published online.
We found similar results to the original investigation 10 years ago. The correct diagnosis was identified from Google in 15 of 26 cases (58%). 20 of 26 internet searches returned the same results as the original study, 3 cases did better in 2016 and 3 cases did worse. So, we conclude that the utility of basic internet search engines for making a diagnosis has not changed substantially in the past decade.
Scott Haines
Nabil Khandker
Competing interests: No competing interests